The legitimatory role of economics in regard to the development of derivatives markets has been particularly clear-cut. As chapter 1 noted, as recently as 1970 markets in financial derivatives were either non-existent or (by today's standards) small-scale, and many current financial derivatives were illegal. Derivatives were haunted by the impression, held not only by lay people but by many market regulators, that they were simply wagers on the movement of prices. This was not merely a general obstacle to the development of derivatives markets. The way in which the legal distinction between gambling and legitimate futures trading had been drawn in the United States made cashsettled derivatives contracts illegal, and, as noted in chapter 6, until the 1980s this blocked the emergence of stock-index derivatives such as index futures and index options.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1134